BCD-396T Help

This is the place to discuss generalized scanner questions and information for San Diego County. Whether it's radios, antennas, or other general scanner related topics, you can talk about it here.
jjwool
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:04 am

Re: BCD-396T Help

Post by jjwool »

Just a further FYI. I too have a 396. It really does help to read the manual just for understanding of the unit at a minimum. Systems, freqs, and talk groups are right on this website. I purchased ARC 396 software and to me its pretty easy to use to set up your unit. Its not terribly expensive and you can get the "regular" or "pro" version depending on how much you want to pay. Just my 2 cents. Enjoy your new unit and scanning!
one thumb short
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:45 pm

Re: BCD-396T Help

Post by one thumb short »

Hi I am a newbe also .I just purchased a bcd396t scanner,I read one of the posts and he was refered to HRO to help program his scanner.I want to learn to program my scanner.I did scanners in the 70-80's boy have they changed.I do not think it will help me to buy a program because I do not think I will be able to do it and waste my money.Is there any one who could program my scanner and show me what they are doing and maybe I will be able to pick it up from watching.I am in Spring Valley area,want to listen to sheriff,san miguel fire ,chp,astera,amr,and others.Thanks ahead for your help with and old scanner guy.Hope some one will be able to help Me.I bought one a few years ago,and it was supossed to be ready for me to scann 800 freq, but it was not ,that is why I joined this group.one thumb
IronCross
Posts: 104
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:50 am

Re: BCD-396T Help

Post by IronCross »

one thumb short wrote:Hi I am a newbe also .I just purchased a bcd396t scanner,I read one of the posts and he was refered to HRO to help program his scanner.I want to learn to program my scanner.I did scanners in the 70-80's boy have they changed.I do not think it will help me to buy a program because I do not think I will be able to do it and waste my money.Is there any one who could program my scanner and show me what they are doing and maybe I will be able to pick it up from watching.I am in Spring Valley area,want to listen to sheriff,san miguel fire ,chp,astera,amr,and others.Thanks ahead for your help with and old scanner guy.Hope some one will be able to help Me.I bought one a few years ago,and it was supossed to be ready for me to scann 800 freq, but it was not ,that is why I joined this group.one thumb

Like other have said,

BC TOOLS is free, Proscan is 30 day full trial. Both are very easy to use. Proscan is more fitted to each scanner IMO.

Here is 396 via BC Tools, http://files.scandiego.com/scannerfiles/396/index.htm
[Reminder when you save the file some reason my pc wants to save as a txt, if it happens just click when saying save as and "All Files" and it should save as .bct ]


Thanks for Mikey for showing my this:
Mikey wrote:Here's how I have mine set up -

I have separate systems for "RCS South Fire", "RCS South Law", "RCS North Fire", "RCS North Law", "RCS East", "RCS Northeast", "RCS Hendrix", "RCS Boucher", etc. The groups inside the systems are setup as follows -

RCS South Fire
1 - Heartland Fire
2 - Chula Vista Fire
3 - CDF
4 - Fire Mutual Aid (South and East Cmds/Tacs, N Cmd 5/Tac 9-11)
5 - Countywide (Co Tac, the "Airs", etc)
6 - ALS Areas, Disaster Med S/T, Emergency
7 - Imperial County EMS
8 - Medic -> Hospital
9 - Lifeguards
0 - ICS

RCS South Law
1 - SDSO (broken into a couple groups, but with the same quick key)
2 - CHP
3 - El Cajon PD
4 - La Mesa PD
5 - National City PD
6 - Chula Vista PD
7 - Coronado PD
8 - Harbor PD
9 - Law Mutual Aid / Countywide
0 - CalTrans

RCS North Fire
1 - North Comm Fire
2 - Escondido Fire
3 - Heartland Fire
4 - CDF
5 - Fire Mutual Aid
6 - Countywide
7 - ALS Areas, Disaster Med S/T, Emergency
8 - Medic -> Hospital
9 - Lifeguards
0 - ICS

RCS North Law
1 - SDSO Dispatches/Tacs
2 - SDSO "Other" (SID, CID, etc)
3 - CHP
4 - Carlsbad PD
5 - Oceanside PD
6 - Escondido PD
7 - Rancho Santa Fe Patrol
8 - Mutual Aid (Law and Countywide)
9 - Dist Attorney / ICS / etc
0 - CalTrans

RCS East/Northeast/Fill-Ins
1 - Heartland Fire
2 - CDF
3 - Fire Mutual Aid
4 - Countywide stuff
5 - Medics -> Hospital
6 - SDSO Disp/Tacs (Poway, Santee, Rural, San Marcos)
7 - SDSO "Others"/Probation/Dist Attorney
8 - CHP
9 - Law Mutual Aid
0 - Imperial County/CalTrans

This works for me because I can turn off agencies easily enough. There's a 200 talkgroup limit and only 10 "banks" per group, so splitting them out like this makes it easy. I usually have all but the local SDSO channels locked out for wherever I happen to be.
There is some more good info in the thread: http://scandiego.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1237
Last edited by IronCross on Sun May 03, 2009 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
one thumb short
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:45 pm

Re: BCD-396T Help

Post by one thumb short »

one thumb short wrote:Hi I am a newbe also .I just purchased a bcd396t scanner,I read one of the posts and he was refered to HRO to help program his scanner.I want to learn to program my scanner.I did scanners in the 70-80's boy have they changed.I do not think it will help me to buy a program because I do not think I will be able to do it and waste my money.Is there any one who could program my scanner and show me what they are doing and maybe I will be able to pick it up from watching.I am in Spring Valley area,want to listen to sheriff,san miguel fire ,chp,astera,amr,and others.Thanks ahead for your help with and old scanner guy.Hope some one will be able to help Me.I bought one a few years ago,and it was supossed to be ready for me to scann 800 freq, but it was not ,that is why I joined this group.one thumb
I will try to read my manual more,to make sense to me about programming my scanner.Do I need to get rid of all the programs already in my scanner?Then program in new groups?Thanks for the reply and help so far ,I will try if not I might have to pay get some one to help me ,I HOPE I will be able to do this.One thumb short
w6kru
Posts: 79
Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:46 am

Re: BCD-396T Help

Post by w6kru »

one thumb short wrote:I will try to read my manual more,to make sense to me about programming my scanner.Do I need to get rid of all the programs already in my scanner?Then program in new groups?Thanks for the reply and help so far ,I will try if not I might have to pay get some one to help me ,I HOPE I will be able to do this.One thumb short
Go get bcTools as people have already indicated. Once you get the software talking to the 396, then you can use my file that is linked in above. It is an OK starting point and will get you going.
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